Chicago smokers could face even higher cigarettes taxes as Mayor Rahm Emanuel tries to control his proposed 2013 budget. As WBBM Newsradio Political Editor Craig Dellimore studies, Mayor Emanuel declared that his new budget will not propose raises in city property taxes, the sales tax, the gas tax, or the amusement tax as some have speculated. But when he was asked whether he would increase the cigarette tax – now the second highest tax in the nation – the mayor argued that no decision has been made yet.
“Anything that relates, if we do consider the cigarettes tax, it has to invest in kids’s health,” Emanuel confessed.
The city faces a $298 million budget decrease.
At present, the combined city and state cigarette taxes in Chicago is almost $5.67. The only city with a higher city and state cigarettes tax is New York, which is merely 18 cents higher.
If the city does increase cigarette taxes, it would come on the heels of a $1 per package state cigarette taxes hike that took effect on July 1, the Tribune wrote. That increase has driven the price of a package of cigs above the $11 mark in many places.
Tags: cigarette tax